the hartford schools, bain capital connection

You remember Bain Capital, the bane of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012. The aim of this company, once run by Romney, said Barack Obama, was to “outsource jobs,” “maximize profits” and spend companies into bankruptcy. Bain Capital was begat by Bain & Company, whose Advisor Partner, former Goldman Sachs member Marcia Blenko, serves on the Board of Directors of Education Resource Strategies (ERS), the shadow government of Hartford Public Schools.

ERS is a Watertown, MA. based non-profit, whose promise is to come into a school district and advise them how to best use “time, people and money,” “to transform their resource use to dramatically improve student learning.” ERS states that they have been transforming school systems for 15 years. Looking through the bios of the 73 team members on the ERS webpage, those who engage school district leadership, it appears that most of them were probably not even out of school themselves 15 years ago. At any rate, engaging school districts in this way has transformed ERS into a $10 million a year non-profit institution.

Current Hartford Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez became Assistant Superintendent of Hartford Public Schools (HPS) in 2015 – shortly after Bain Capital became majority stake holder in Connecticut’s “Bob’s Discount Furniture” stores. ERS garnered their first contract with HPS in 2016 and the marriage has continued unabated ever since at the cost of more than $300k a year. Despite having an 8-member, fully staffed leadership team at her disposal in Hartford, and an advisory panel in the School Board – or so they should be – and 1,600 certified teachers, Hartford’s well educated and experienced Superintendent, with School Board approval, has, at every turn, been consulting an outsider on what is best for HPS.

The Superintendent uses words and phrases such as: “time, people, and money,” “restructuring,” “transformation,” “reimaging education,” “innovative staffing,” and “redesign,” which are the same words and phrases used throughout ERS’ webpage. At a Board of Education Finance and Audit Committee meeting in October 2018, it was stated that “According to ERS,” HPS had the lowest number of special education teachers in the state at the time. This was from ERS, not the Superintendent’s Office of Talent Management. ERS has advised the Superintendent’s budget leaders, advised on district operations, advised on the development of the lagging “Community School” model, advised on teacher professional development, advised on the district’s adoption of all 7 ERS principles of ESSER (federal COVID relief money) spending, and even had input on the development of the 2021 Boys & Girls Club in the South End.

And as to that “dramatic” improvement in student learning? ERS states that they have served over 100 school districts in their 15 years, yet only 34 “current” and “past” partners are listed on their webpage. Of the 8 “current” partner districts listed, none of them would qualify as a successful school district. Of the 8 “past” partner districts listed which I looked at, only one would be a nice place to send a child to school. Most of ERS’ “past” partners were only 1–3-year marriages and are now mostly 10 years old. One “past” partner district, Charlotte-Mecklenburg School (CMS) district in North Carolina, had an 8-year relationship with ERS. Two years post-ERS, CMS launched a district wide turnaround initiative. Two former CMS Superintendents now sit on the ERS Board of Directors. Did HPS see a “dramatic” improvement in student learning in the 4 years leading up to COVID, or has it since? Who has greater influence at the policy table at HPS - students, teachers, and HPS leaders, or ERS and Bain Capital?